This introductory guide has been created to help policy-makers, researchers and practitioners in the field of innovation, entrepreneurship and growth understand why, when and how to do a randomised controlled trial (RCT).

It will help you:

• acquire the basic knowledge needed to understand RCTs
• understand the concept of randomisation and how to implement it in practice
• understand what type of trial is best suited to address your research questions
• get an overview of the steps in getting from an initial research question to a completed trial
• acquire knowledge on how to best prepare for the trial implementation
• understand some of the challenges that you may face in the implementation stage
• equip you with knowledge on how to best approach analysis and reporting of RCTs

We have created this guide to provide you with enough knowledge to allow you to have meaningful conversations with technical experts, but also to help you better design and plan RCTs in the field of innovation, entrepreneurship and growth. For those who are interested, the guide also offers signposts to more specialist sources.

This is our first version of the guide and we welcome your feedback at [email protected]